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These Famous People had Truly Bad Sides to their Personalities

Khalid Elhassan September 15, 2021 36 min

Awful People - Stalin overseeing the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact — Stalin overseeing the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Euromaidan

Awful People - Susan B. Anthony, left, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton — Susan B. Anthony, left, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. NJTV

7. The Awful Side of America’s Foremost Women’s Rights Activists

Susan B. Anthony (1820 – 1906) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 – 1902) were great social reformers and equal rights activists who played a key role in the fight to secure the rights of America’s women. Stanton was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention – the first-ever called for the sole purpose of discussing women’s rights. Both died before the 19^th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote, but they played key roles in laying the groundwork for its passage.

Unfortunately, as is too often true with all too many who did great good, they had an awful side. To wit, racism seems jarring coming from such progressive icons. At one time, Stanton and Anthony were part of the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which they formed with black abolitionist Frederick Douglass and other reformers in 1866. AERA sought to secure voting rights for both women and blacks. Within a few years, however, Stanton and Anthony went from supporters of blacks’ right to vote to opponents and voiced their opposition in starkly racist terms.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.